Stories by Thomas Hoffman

The real truth about B-to-B e-commerce

Business-to-business e-commerce and e-marketplaces may be hot areas for Fortune 1,000 companies to explore these days, but there are a raft of challenges that IT leaders need to work through in making these partnerships work. So said a panel of CIOs who spoke about the "naked" truth of B-to-B e-commerce at Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leadership Conference yesterday.

Cohen: People Have a Constant Need for Info

In the 25 years since he co-founded Information Builders Inc. (IBI), Gerry Cohen has witnessed multiple generations of computing and massive changes in the information technology industry. But one thing hasn't changed, he says: People continue to have a "constant need for information." Only the way in which it's delivered is different.

IBM Officially Launches Online Learning

IBM Corp. today officially launched a business unit called IBM Mindspan Solutions that's aimed at helping corporate customers plan, develop and deploy distance-learning capabilities for their employees.

Sun's earnings shine

Some analysts had predicted that year-2000-related spending freezes might hurt certain types of computer vendors during the latter part of 1999 and early 2000, including hardware and software makers. Sun Microsystems, however, witnessed record unit volume and revenue for its server division during that time, according to the company's CEO, Scott McNealy.

NASD Probing Bank One Unit

The regulatory arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers is investigating Banc One Capital Markets for possible violations resulting from systems integration problems that surfaced from the 1998 merger between Bank One Corp. and First Chicago NBD Corp.

MS Q3 Sales Hit by Low Corporate PC Demand

Although Microsoft Corp.'s profits rose 23% during its third quarter, the company's revenues came in below forecasts due to lower-than-expected demand for PCs by corporate customers.

EMC's Q1 Earnings Jump 50 Percent

Internet projects by big customers such as The Home Depot Inc. and Bertelsmann AG helped fuel demand for EMC Corp.'s storage products and drive first-quarter earnings and revenue growth.

Sun's Q3 Earnings Shine

Citing increased market share gains, Sun Microsystems Inc. reported strong third-quarter earnings yesterday, beating Wall Street expectations by 3 cents per share.

Prudential Promotes IT Executive

The Prudential Insurance Company of America has named Jimmie Gonzalez vice president of operations and systems for its guaranteed products - namely, the company's retirement and death benefit plans.

Marriott Names New E-commerce Chief

Marriott International Inc. has named Richard S. Hoffman, a partner with the Washington-based law firm Williams and Connolly LLP, as its new senior vice president of special projects.

New Electronic Stock Market Forming

Archipelago LLC, a trading network that electronically matches buyers and sellers of stocks, is partnering with the Pacific Exchange to create an all-electronic stock market.

NASD Asks SEC to Delay Stock Decimalization

The National Association of Securities Dealers Inc., the parent company of the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to put off its plans to shift the nation's securities markets to decimal-based pricing until 2001 to help it and other entities increase their systems capacity to handle an expected increase in message and order traffic.

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